Look at the stars: Part 3
"I lie under starlit sky
And the seasons change in the blink of an eye
I watch as the planets turn
And the old stars die and the young stars burn"
- "Lonesome Dreams" by Lord Huron
Ladies and gentlemen, it is July 2016. My brain can hardly believe it. I swear, the last time I blinked, I had just had my committee meeting in January.
It's probably because I haven't taken a breath since then (ok, I took one breath), but the first half of this year was a complete blur. I've had my head down, writing my thesis for months. And all of a sudden, I find myself thrust to the surface, forced to breathe.
Yesterday, another OIMB graduate student successfully defended her dissertation and received her Ph.D. She did some excellent work, looking at how changes in the environment can induce changes in snail larvae. It's called phenotypic plasticity, and it's really cool. When a predator is around, the larvae grow thicker shells. When food is in low supply, the larvae grow larger vela, or food-catching lobes. When she attached a weight to the larvae, their vela grew asymmetrically to accommodate the weight and allow the larvae to swim.
I often find myself referring to Ph.D. Comics for concise and accurate descriptions of graduate school life, and a friend's graduation is no exception. Check out the flow chart "Should you be happy for them?" here. According to the flow chart, I shouldn't be wasting my time writing a blog post. I shouldn't even have wasted the time to attend the defense. I should be working.
Because I'm next.
That's right, the last layer of ceiling has been peeled away above my head. With J's successful defense in the past, I am the next graduate student in line. In just over two weeks, I will defend my own thesis.
Oh, crap. I have a lot of work to do.
And the seasons change in the blink of an eye
I watch as the planets turn
And the old stars die and the young stars burn"
- "Lonesome Dreams" by Lord Huron
Ladies and gentlemen, it is July 2016. My brain can hardly believe it. I swear, the last time I blinked, I had just had my committee meeting in January.
It's probably because I haven't taken a breath since then (ok, I took one breath), but the first half of this year was a complete blur. I've had my head down, writing my thesis for months. And all of a sudden, I find myself thrust to the surface, forced to breathe.
Yesterday, another OIMB graduate student successfully defended her dissertation and received her Ph.D. She did some excellent work, looking at how changes in the environment can induce changes in snail larvae. It's called phenotypic plasticity, and it's really cool. When a predator is around, the larvae grow thicker shells. When food is in low supply, the larvae grow larger vela, or food-catching lobes. When she attached a weight to the larvae, their vela grew asymmetrically to accommodate the weight and allow the larvae to swim.
I often find myself referring to Ph.D. Comics for concise and accurate descriptions of graduate school life, and a friend's graduation is no exception. Check out the flow chart "Should you be happy for them?" here. According to the flow chart, I shouldn't be wasting my time writing a blog post. I shouldn't even have wasted the time to attend the defense. I should be working.
Because I'm next.
That's right, the last layer of ceiling has been peeled away above my head. With J's successful defense in the past, I am the next graduate student in line. In just over two weeks, I will defend my own thesis.
Oh, crap. I have a lot of work to do.
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